From: erich@csdl.cs.tamu.edu (Erich Schneider)
Subject: Re: How good is Up Front?

In article <45v9d6$43l@donatello.leonardo.net>
dormouse@fishnet.net (Randall Peek) writes:
>I have seen occasional mention of the Squad Leader game, Up Front,
>and at least one expansion set for it. I know next to nothing about
>the game, but I love card games of all types. Could someone please
>leave me e-mail or a follow-up telling me about it, and whether it is
>a worthwhile investment, if indeed it is still available?

_Up Front_ rocks, if you are into WW2 low-level combat. I say this
without reservation.

As far as availability goes I'm not totally sure, but I heard around the
beginning of the year that the first expansion, _Banzai!_, was out of
print. There's a second expansion, _Desert War_, whose status I do not
know.

The game has two kinds of cards - Personality and Action. Personality
cards each represent a soldier, artillery piece, or vehicle. Typically
each player has about 10-15 of them, representing some variety of
infantry squad with appropriate weapon mix, sometimes with armor
support. These cards are arranged into up to four "groups", lettered A
through D. There is no map; each group is considered to be opposite the
enemy's similarly-lettered group at an abstract "relative range". Action
cards are what one uses to do things; each group on one's side can
perform up to one action per turn, many requiring cards. Movement cards
allow one to move forward or backward relative to the enemy. However, to
finish movement one needs a Terrain card, whose play is a separate
action, so a group can get popped while moving, or get "stuck in
transit" if one lacks a Terrain card - although any card doubles as an
"open ground" terrain card, in a pinch. The enemy, in the interim, can
also discard terrain cards on your moving groups, allowing them to
blunder into streams, marshes, or minefields, among others. In order to
fire, one needs a Fire card, of which there are varying strengths, but
require a set amount of firepower from the firing group; each
personality card is rated for fire strength at each relative range. When
one gets shot at one's men's morale can break, and getting them back on
their feet (necessary before one can move again) requires Rally cards.
Other cards include Concealment (helps when shot at, or when attempting
infiltration of enemy groups, which is possible at close range and can
lead to close combat), Snipers (discarded on the enemy, can result in
men being pinned or killed), and Heroes (instantly rallies a man at any
time and doubles his firepower).

Each nationality (Russian, American, German in the main game, British
and Japanese added by _Banzai_, French and Italian added by _Desert
War_) had various rules applying to it to simulate its national
characteristics. The Germans, for example, have a five-card hand, but
can discard one card every turn in addition to taking actions.  The
Americans have a six card hand and can discard two cards, but only if
they do nothing else that turn - indicative of the "90-day wonder's"
greater book knowledge and ability to improvise but lack of  combat
experience relative to the Germans. The Russians have a four card hand
but can ditch up to all of them if they do nothing else (little training
for officers, but prone to innovation in desperate straits), plus get
bonuses on entrenching, can go berserk and/or shoot cowardly men
(commissars), etc. Japanese get their Banzai charges,  the Italians can
surrender en masse if the opponent plays right, and so forth.

All resolution of events is done with the cards; they have both large
red or black numbers in one corner, which are added or subtracted to
base numbers to generate a random number, and a set of ten numbers at
the bottom which allow one to generate "one out of N" events.

Victory conditions vary from scenario to scenario, and include things
like "move forward some distance and occupy defensive terrain", "clear
the enemy out of the pillbox they starts in", or "survive through four
shuffles of the Action deck and have more victory points that the
oppponent".

The game is great if you like "fog of war" in your wargames - this is
not the game for people who need a satellite view of the battlefield and
exact control over everything their men do, which is impossible for this
era at this scale of combat. You can get your men into great positions,
but have them fail to fire - or refuse to get off their bellies when you
know the enemy has been suppressed - or blunder into  a killing ground
when in sight of a strongpoint. Or, a lone hero can  infiltrate the
enemy squad and open up with his machine pistol, paving the way for a
quick victory. Just like real war. (Any _Up Front_ player with a bit of
experience will have plenty of "war stories" to tell about games past.)

In any case, I heartily recommend it to everyone who likes squad-level
WW2 combat games.

--
Erich Schneider  erich@bush.cs.tamu.edu 
http://bush.cs.tamu.edu/~erich 
"You are a true believer. Blessings of the State; blessings of
the masses.  Thou art a subject of the Divine, created in the
image of Man, by the masses, for the masses. Let us be thankful
we have commerce. Buy more. Buy more now. Buy. And be happy."
            - Confession booth blessing, _THX-1138_